


Into the Great Wide Open

by karrenia_rune



Category: Der Rattenfänger von Hameln | The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Gen, Gift Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:28:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22990105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: Or Five Times the Piper Called the Tune and One Time it Called to Him
Relationships: Rattenfänger | Pied Piper/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5
Collections: Once Upon a Fic 2020





	Into the Great Wide Open

**Author's Note:**

  * For [indigo_inks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/indigo_inks/gifts).



He was born with a powerful gift, a gift that had never been fully understood even by those who had raised him. 

Most people cannot remember anything of their first years of life before their fourth or fifth season of life, but one thing would always be clear music both vocal and instrumental had always be a part of his life.  
That was not to say that was destined by some kind of musical child prodigy, oh no. It was only that it was like he could sense the harmonic frequencies in and around and within everything and everyone around him. 

It came from the way his emotions would churn and throb just underneath his skin and find a home in his blood and bones yearning to be set free. He so wanted to let it have its way and see what it could really do. 

Music and magic were in his blood and was he to deny it?

A gift that his parents had often cautioned that the musical talent and power could skip generations, that it had been something that could be shared among their clan, but not the wider world for those outside their sheltered valley would not understand and often fear things that were different.

Fear was not something he understood in any tangible way, but he understood it was just as tangible an emotion as any other.

After all, he was not the only on in their clan's history to have born with the gift; others before him had been granted with other powers not just for music, and art, but also for other abilities.

So, he took this in and grew and learned and experimented with his gift in large and small ways; until he came of age and felt the restless yearning to learn and experience more of the wider world.

On the night of his coming-of-age ceremony, the elders asked him to choose among the offered instruments; he had been drawn to the drums and had begun to reach for them; pivoted, and dithered over the violin or perhaps a cello. but a set of pipes sang to him much as the legendary siren song that drove mariners to their doom in watery depths.  
He reached out for the pipes and the stored potential within them called to the potential within him. That was the first time the tune called as one soul to another.

When he left he earned his living a wandering minstrel in order to learn the languages and the songs of the lands and people he encountered and moving on. He never really felt as if he belonged in any one place or would be claimed by anyone or claim anyone. 

He met his mentor in dream-traveling when he crossed paths with a member of one of the many warring and nomadic tribes of the Great Steppes who had taken him under his wing.  
The man had been a shaman, a kind of blending of doctor and magician and was both strict and comforting if the Piper were being honest with himself, and why that should matter all of these hundreds of centuries later, he could not have answered that with certainty. But perhaps it would help clear his own mind at least.

He had fallen in love with a woman of the tribes, Opis, she of the flowing raven-hair down to her waist that she normally wore pinned up in intricate bundles on top of her head held in place with bone and beaded combs. 

Her eyes were wide and nut-brown although whenever the light hit them just right or when they were alone in their shared tent and intimate he could detect flecks of gold within their depths. 

She had long limbs and full lips and won her place within the tribe with her knowledge of herbs and songs and had the most beautiful voice The Piper had ever heard. 

Her brother, Atheaus, had even crafted his second musical instrument for him; a flute crafted out bone and wood and given to him when he had officially been initiated into the tribe. 

For the first time in such a long time, he thought he had found his new home. He learned to cook and even hunt, although he felt he made a rather poor showing of it. He would always be a better bard then he ever would be a warrior. 

The music of the tribes was both loud and syncopated; the sound of thundering hooves and cacophony of hundreds of nomadic people on the moving depending on weather, seasons, grazing land and winds of war. 

Yet, it could also be soft and tantalizing and enchanting as he learned more about music and medicine from his new father-in-law the shaman and his potion-brewing and daughter's herb-lore and medicine.  
He had loved Opis and she had loved him.

They never had children and he thought it had more to do with his near-immortality than anything else, so he took a shine to the children of the tribe and each every one had found a way into his wayward heart. For a time, life was good and he was content.

This was not to last forever.  
****  
He had lost the love of his life. 

The Piper knew that she and her tribe were mortal, and as such were caught up in the great wheel of creation and destruction, still he could not let go of the rage and pain he felt and he set to wandering once more. How did you live? Will you be an angel of mercy or will you give in to the pain and the rage?

He wandered all over and left a trail in his wake like spindrift on the ocean and could not count the decades as time passed. 

Then he found himself in a small village in the Bavarian region of what would one day come to be called Germany, or was it Prussia then, no matter. Hamelin, it would haunt him.  
He gave in to the rage and the children of the town suffered for it. He used his gift both musical and magical. Even at this late remove why he had done this ate at him like a heavy stone of regret and sorrow he would carry for as long as his unnaturally long life went on.  
***  
If time was still a barrier, and That was a big if. 

Finally, he left the Old World behind taking advantage of the broadening horizons offered by exploration and technology.

He booked passage on a steamer he had crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, riding the rails and discovering more about himself and those around him. He had gained a new resolve.

He would use his power to help them hopefully without drawing unnecessary attention to himself and for several hundred centuries all was well. 

He had prided himself that he had found a balance between teaching and using magic while still hiding in plain sight. The Piper had reinvented himself once before and he could do so again.

****  
Suspended in the void, the dreamer came awake, and it was not for the first nor the last time that he would do so.  
The infinite variety of sensory impressions that came to him while traveling in this disembodied state were as infinite and finite as they chose to be. He no longer questioned why this should be so and when he'd had first learned to travel these dream roads.

His mind wandered out of the paths and he saw, heard and felt what was happening on the space station where his physical body currently resided.

He allowed his awareness to expand outward further until it reached the international space colony; then further out to Gate which allowed spaceships to travel between this far-flung colony and Old Earth.

On the colony, he focused on a choir of children participating in an Inter-Planetary Choral and Orchestral Festival. He rejoiced.  
Music had always been a passion for him and he developed something of a soft spot for children. 

The Piper felt his heart swell to hear the music of both voice and instrument and ached to join them.  
Especially for one voice and face, in particular, a girl with long brown hair and silver eyes Selena, realizing with a jolt that while traveling the dream-roads that he could see, feel, hear, but not touch. 

His first time awakening to his own reality he had been angry and bitter and had not yet come into the full extent of his power and he had caused a few calamities that lay like spindrift on the ocean in the wake of his passing. 

Now, he was back in the present once more.

Speaking of which, the cure for the Burning Fever that had taken so many lives: of men, women and especially among the children had brought about the advent on a new metal called Melicite which had many heretofore unknown and mysterious properties among them was its ability to resonate along harmonic frequencies previously unheard of. 

Among the gifted, especially the children from 10-20 years of age this metal alloy allowed them to access paranormal abilities, including telekinesis, and dream-walking. And for all of his own power, experience and knowledge garnered over the centuries he never saw it coming.

The world had grown and so had technology and mankind had invented a means to leave the world of their birth behind and venture out into space and so doing, those like him or those descended from other near-immortal or supernatural beings were sought out in order to make use of their abilities.

The children were safe and into sanctuaries scattered all over a network had helped build up using his own powers and influence or settled with foster families some of had been aware of their unique abilities and were still willing to take them in. 

If the price that he would help the Founders with various tasks and these occasional survey missions as the humanity expanded their reach out into the wider universe than the Piper decided that was a price he was willing to pay.

So, here he was still in the deprivation tank and wool-gathering on how he had come to reach this point and wondering how did you live? How did you love? Just for a moment forget who you think you are and let yourself be. 

Let yourself feel and it let it rush over you like a flood into the great wide open. The world of his birth was both far away and yet still close and he thanked whatever powers that be still tethered him to both.

The piper thought he called the tune for all those other lifetimes, or the tune called to him, either way, he was content. He closed his eyes and drifted off while he let himself relax and rest. Saying, yes, yes this was meant to be.


End file.
